I have a new release coming out on Friday, November 15th. And like the last one, I’d like to give the material some context. I’m thinking of these as old-school liner notes, or concert programs. It’s one of my gripes with all the modern platforms – too many choices and not enough information.
So the album is called “Mixtape”, because that's the lens I was looking through when compiling it. Unlike an album, where it’s often about larger themes and more cohesive sound pallets, mixtapes are all about variety (or at least they were for me and my group of friends). So I was more concerned with making sure none of the songs sounded too similar.
I have to say, coming at this from the opposite direction made this project a ton of fun! After so many years of worrying about cohesiveness, it was really interesting thinking of ways to destroy it. Beyond that, I have always worked within lots of genres. I just stopped releasing my less acoustic work, because I didn’t know where to put it. But I don’t think any of that matters so much anymore. One positive thing about all these modern platforms is that, from what I’ve seen, they have expanded a lot of people’s musical tastes. The need for such firm boundaries/genres seems to have passed. I don’t hear a lot of “I only listen to [insert genre]” anymore. So I’m using this mixtape series as a way to collapse all my random side projects, and just release my work under one name now. I will still make traditional albums, too, but this can be a container for all the misfits.
So here’s a little bit about each song on the album.
Lovesong
This track spawned from testing out a synthesizer. I didn’t set out to make a song with it – I just wanted to document some of the sounds to listen back to later – but it was developing a fun sense of movement as I layered a bunch of different arpeggiators on top of each other. So I built some drum loops, made a rough song structure, and then I forgot about it for about three years.
I found the recording again earlier this year. I liked the way it sounded, so I added some guitars and lyrics to it. I was feeling sentimental that day, so I thought I would try my hand at a love song. I never write those, at least not directly, but on that particular afternoon it felt right. I had also just finished reading the “Three Body Problem” series by Liu Cixin the week before, which, if you’ve ever read them, really makes you think about life with this enormous sense of scale. It definitely affected the lyrics I came up with.
So this track was just a chaotic bunch of happenstance and trusting your instincts, which feels in line with the theme of love. At least to me.
Safe and Sound
This song, if you know my earlier projects, was on an album called “The Violent Blue.” But it originally started as a Radical Face song. We just needed something to finish out that album, and it wasn’t fitting in with The Roots, which I was also working on at the time. So I got together with Alex (the other member of Electric President), we recorded it quickly, and the record was done soon after. But if I’m being perfectly honest, I was never very happy with that recording. Something never felt right about the mix, and it’s not the best key for my voice. I used to say I like the song more than the recording, if that makes sense. But like any piece of art, you eventually just have to accept the flaws and move on.
So how did this new version come about?
I bought a new mic earlier this year. My way of testing a microphone is to record an entire song with it, using it for every source, as it’s the fastest way to see how it behaves and whether I want to keep it. But I typically do this with a song I’ve already written or a cover, so there aren’t many artistic decisions to make and I can focus on the engineering. I just happened to choose “Safe and Sound” for my test, and I was really happy with how it sounded.
I understand that people might still prefer the original, and that’s totally fine. But for me, this one is far closer to how I heard the song in my head, once upon a time.
See It Through
I have a giant soft spot for early new wave pop songs. The Cars, Gary Numan, Modern English, Echo and the Bunnymen, The B-52s … it’s a long list. It’s often my favorite driving music, and that era struck such a great balance between fun and moody. Melodrama with a beat, and they really trim the fat with the arrangements. While this isn’t a style I play with regularly (or that I’m very confident in) it happens from time to time. So I decided to put this one out. I have a few more floating around that I may eventually put out, too.
Lyrically, this one is pretty straightforward. It’s about sitting with someone through a bad patch of life, and accepting that it's okay to need that very same help sometimes, too.
Endless Summoner
This was originally part of my (now defunct) side project “Human Mother.” But I made it as a personal snippet of nostalgia.
I grew up in Jacksonville Beach, Florida – a crusty little beach town just south of the Georgia line. I grew up around surfing, and while I mostly skated, I developed a real fondness for the ocean that I still carry with me.
But this particular song is a giant nod to my favorite surf film, Endless Summer. We had the VHS when I was a kid, and I watched it a lot. I just liked the feel of it, and still do. Seeing it years later, I realized how much the mood of that film stems from its soundtrack. So I wanted to write an homage to that movie and its score by The Sandals.
Additional note: the vocal samples in this came from a really funny Uber ride when I lived in LA. The driver didn’t speak a lot of English, and I don’t speak a lot of Spanish, but somehow the miscommunications just made us both laugh a lot. I asked him if I could record our ride, and just put the phone up on the dash. He really liked the word “beautiful.” I thought that was a nice word to pick.
Shipwrecks
I wrote this song on a blue day. I was missing someone I haven’t seen in a long time, and may never see again. For some reason, those kinds of feelings lead me to sad songs with major chords. Always has. I guess it’s because it’s a confusing set of emotions. The kind where warmth and loss are so entangled that they’ve made something new, where you smile and mourn at the same time. Happysad. Lostfound.
I wrote and recorded the entire song in one day. Mixed it the next. Haven’t touched it since. Not sure I’ll play this one out very much, whenever I do some shows again. But we’ll see. Sometimes it scratches a strange sort of itch.
Kids Are Mean
Another one from my “Human Mother” project, this song was inspired by 90s hip-hop producers. Albums like “Entroducing” from DJ Shadow were a huge influence on me, especially when it comes to percussion. I’ve always loved the chopped drums from that era, and the sound quality they had. Heavy and crinkly and mixed really loud.
All the speaking in this track came from interviews found on freesound.org, but they’re heavily edited. I cut all the words out and moved them around to make new sentences. There’s something really funny about that to me, stitching together a bunch of nonsense. This track also continues my ongoing obsession with wind chimes.
I’m A Good Listener
I wrote this song after being invited out to a number of social events in Los Angeles. I kept noticing that everyone was saying “amazing” a lot, but it didn’t seem like anyone was listening very much. The people were all nice enough on a surface level, but it really didn’t suit me. It still amazes me that standing around and doing very little can be so tiring when it’s the wrong fit. I couldn’t escape the feeling that I was melting.
So I wrote this song in response. I detuned my guitars until the strings were just flopping around and almost unplayable, and sang the words with food in my mouth, then pitch shifted everything afterwards. I’ve always liked creating things solely to make myself laugh. This is just one of those.
Gymnopodie No. 1
This is a cover of a very famous piano piece from Erik Satie. There are so many versions of this that I thought it would be fun to try something in the opposite direction. The original is incredibly mellow and contemplative, so I wanted something hectic and busy, with an almost drum and bass feel.
I reached out to Griffin Kisner, who plays drums for me on tour, and on the “A Light In The Woods” series (there’s still about 22 more songs coming for that project). I asked if he could record a single drum take that repeats as little as possible. This was in the middle of the pandemic, so we were just working remotely and sharing via email. I was blown away with the performance he sent back to me. It’s the star of the track, for sure.
Teenage Feelings
This little shoegaze number came about because of a script. A friend of mine was working on a pilot for a show, and while I won’t share any of his ideas here (they’re very cool), it takes place in the early 90s indie rock scene and the main character is a singer in a band. My friend asked if I wanted to write something that she, and the band, might play. That period of music is why I’m a musician, so I was very down to give it a try.
I wrote and recorded the song over two days, writing the lyrics from the point of view of the main character. I had a blast doing it, but it was yet another song that would typically just sit on a hard drive. I’m glad I can use this mixtape concept as a home for all these little misfits now.
Latin For Joy
This is a track that I made in an apartment in downtown Los Angeles. It started by sampling my partner tuning his strings. The apartment was noisy, so the only place quiet enough to record was the bathroom. Normally I’d turn the mics off while he was tuning, but since we had to do takes between the buses going by, I left them on the entire time.
I liked the way all the string noises sounded while he was getting ready, so I cut them out and started performing them with a midi keyboard. That led to sampling some trash cans and random noises for drums, and the rest just kind of spiraled from there.
The title came from my misunderstanding of what a word meant, and trying to look up its etymology. I saw the phrase “Latin For Joy” in a search and liked the ring of it.
See You On The Other Side
This song was another synth experiment that turned into a track. I was trying to understand how a plug-in demo worked, and couldn’t get it to behave how I wanted it to. But I liked how warped it all was, and I just cut up the results into something more coherent. That led me to butchering my vocals through various vocoders, and then just stitching together a loose idea of a structure.
I’ve also always liked the idea of depressing dance music, so the final section is a snippet of that idea. I still don’t understand why that idea appeals to me – dancing because you’re feeling down – but it does. Maybe I’ll dig into that idea more explicitly in the future.
And that’s it for this release.
Fun note: this will be my last post with the website looking like it does. I’m working with the team who built the “A Light in the Woods” website to make something new. Since this is where I’ll be spending the bulk of my time communicating, I’d like something more personal than a generic squarespace site. I’d also like to own it. My least favorite thing about the tech world is how much they toy with everything all the time. I’d like to change it myself, because I have a real reason. I’ve grown tired of adapting to whatever these companies are up to. They rarely, if ever, change things for the better. So it’s time I make my own.
Until then, I hope this finds you well. Remember to go outside, and to spend time with people you really know and care about.